I'll Be CC
by Raven Sheridan
Summary: The night started clear and cloudless, but by the dawn everything around them would be drenched in shades of crimson and smoke. - Sokka comes to a realization about his relationship with Toph. Will she be able to save him in the end?  Contest Version!
1. Be Grateful

**This is a contest fic for *daughterofthestars on deviantArt and her pic titled "Ambushed". It's a sad, sad picture, and she did so well conveying the emotion and pain. :O Anyway, she got many offers from writers to expand on her short descriptive story and thus, the contest was born. Honestly, I don't care about being the best. I just wanna see the other entries! :D**

**UPDATE: I won da contest! :D This is officially the contest version, edited with the help if my amazing beta reader, Capt-BA from dA. She's the shiz, and I am so grateful for her wisdom and patience! There will be an Author's Cut, a full multi-chaptered fic to continue and further explore the characters! Yay Tokka!  
**

**[h e a r t],**

**Nyx**

* * *

_**1. Be Grateful**_

The sand only gave her minor problems as of late, only made things slightly fuzzy. A beach was like a massive army of tiny earthen soldiers, each one pinging directions in the form of vibrations off of its myriads of brothers. It was overwhelming at times, with its millions of different angles and perspectives. Tonight, though, she was glad for the imprecise vision. It helped that her Earthbending sight was in tune with her heart and mind. In a strange way, it was comforting to feel so scattered.

She could feel the tide caressing the sandy beach, feel the throb of it against the ocean floor. To her it was an almost tangible sound of silk on silk. Even though she didn't feel the water the way she supposed a Waterbender could, she could still sense it. It felt like the bodies of two lovers pressed against one another, and this image made a flush creep along her cheeks to rival the warmth of the night air.

Images like that had been plaguing her for the past few days of their trip. Flashes of chaste kisses, twined bodies, and other maddening things kept swirling around inside her head like trapped sparrows. The stress and hardship of the war combined with her young age had kept her from really considering the concept, but she'd grown up since then and her mind was opening to the possibilities.

Maybe it was that she was older. Or maybe it was that a certain member of their group kept creeping into her thoughts more and more recently, and she just couldn't rid her thoughts of him. Nor did she want to.

She needed to clear her head, and so she crept away from camp and sought solace where the earth met the sea.

Though she'd never admit it, she longed to see the ocean. It certainly sounded interesting the way it constantly moved, never resting or pausing in its incursion on the earth. Swooosh. Crssshhhhh. Silence as it gathered itself again for another wave. It was one of the very few things, like flying, that frightened her because she couldn't really get a handle on it. It lacked the stability and surety of earth. It parted and flowed around its obstacles, rather than standing fast and strong in the face of its hardships. The concept was almost more than she could comprehend.

Vibrations of familiar footsteps coming down the beach towards her interrupted her musings and sent her heart into a chaotic staccato. "Hey, Snoozles." She didn't have the energy to think up any better taunts.

"Hey, Toph. I got kinda worried when I didn't see you at camp. Everything alright?" He plopped himself down right next to her in the sand. He was so close she could feel the warmth emanating from him. She was starting to regret coming to the beach in only her bindings, and she hoped very hard that he didn't notice the blush coloring her cheeks.

"Yeah, just admiring the ocean. The sounds are much more relaxing than listening to you snore all night." She punched him in the arm for good measure.

Sokka rubbed the sore spot, too used to such abuse to protest, and gently punched her back. "It's really beautiful, you know. The ocean. The moon is full tonight and is casting all sorts of reflections on the surface. It's kinda like someone draped silver satin on top of the cobalt waves. Pretty."

The corner of her mouth twitched downward. "You know, I ought to Earthbend you out into the middle of the ocean for that."

"What? Why?" She felt the shift in his posture as he turned to face her and felt slightly self-conscious at the scrutiny. She'd made a point all her life to make sure everyone knew she didn't care what they thought of her. Her parents had treated her like their own personal dress-up doll, and she imagined that the clothes and trinkets they put her in were fine and beautiful, but what was all that finery to a blind girl, really? She hugged her knees to her chest and wondered what he though of her tonight.

"You don't have to rub it in, Sokka," Toph replied quietly. She hated the tremor in her voice that betrayed her feelings.

"I… I just thought you'd like to know. I know you don't know what any of that stuff really looks like, but maybe you can try to imagine." His voice held a little bit of hurt and confusion. "I wasn't trying to make fun of you, Toph.

(Okay, right here I've got an idea how you could turn this into an honest-to-goodness first time attempt for Sokka to really explain the sight to Toph. He makes the mistake of using fancy color words and being poetic, and I like that, it's in character. But Sokka IS pretty much a genius, and I think he could take a different approach right here, instead of giving up. If I were to write a scene where Sokka describes things to Toph, I would use words like "deep" and "cold" and likening color to emotion and feeling, like "the color of peace" or "the color of contentment". Get creative! Sokka's a creative guy and if he really wants to be her eyes, he's going to have to work for it a bit more.)

He pushed himself up from his spot beside her and dusted the sand from his backside. He paused for a moment, and she was sure he was staring at her. He sighed and started to turn back towards camp when her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Her traitorous heart skipped a beat as her delicate fingers slid over his smooth skin.

"Sokka… I'm sorry. It's just… so unfair, sometimes." She tugged on his arm until he sat back down.

"I know it is," he said quietly. He picked up a small piece of driftwood and doodled aimlessly in the sand. He drew two figures sitting beside one another. She couldn't tell for sure, but she thought that maybe he was drawing them.

"Imagine gentle waves." He took her hand and traced a wavy pattern in the air with it. "They're small, really just ripples, and at the top of each ripple is where the moon reflects."

She nodded slowly, and he continued, "Now, think of how warm the sun is, and think of that feeling as red or yellow, because those are warm colors. Water is cool and soothing and deep, blue and green." He laughed. "I'm not very good at this."

"I kinda understand, I guess. I've never been able to see, so I guess it shouldn't be as hard for me, but I'm always left wondering. My Earthbending sense only gives me shapes, which is great, really. But…" she sighed laid her head against her knees.

Sokka draped an arm across her shoulders and suddenly pulled her against his side in a comfortable half-hug. "Sometimes, Toph, you have to be grateful for what you do have. You have people who love you and would do anything for you. You have amazing abilities that every other Earthbender on this planet would give his left leg for." He let her go and stood again, this time holding his hand out to her.

"And you have someone willing to describe the ocean to you knowing he would most likely get to see those abilities used directly on himself." This made her giggle. She took his offered hand and stood. "I'll be your eyes anytime you want, okay?

"Yeah, that's pretty brave of you, Sokka." In a sudden impulse she would either regret or cherish forever, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. She could feel warmth spread to his face, which made her smile. "You go on back to camp. I'm going to stay out here a bit longer."

"Uh….okay." His voice cracked and she giggled again.

Without waiting for her response he walked away, and she turned unseeing eyes the color of faded jade to the ocean. She imagined what silver satin floating on the cobalt waves might look like, how blue was soothing and red was warm, and smiled to herself. She wondered what it would be like to have Sokka there to describe every detail of the world to her, patient and sweet, and willing to risk his own personal safety on her hair-trigger moods. She was grateful for everything she had. She sat there for a long while, imagining all of the possible futures until the breeze picked up and her skin prickled from the cool air.

Her own drowsiness blunted her senses at first, but after a few minutes on the rocky path back to camp the ominous rumbling and shouts rending the night air woke her up like a splash of frigid water to the face. She launched herself down the path.

Battle.

In a way, she was excited. It had been years since she'd seen any real battle, and she itched to do some real bending. Manipulating a little bit of metal and flinging rocks at her wussy Earthbending trainees back in Ba Sing Se wasn't much of a rush. Knocking the heads of whatever idiots who dared to attack their group would be a pleasant change. She grinned in anticipation, until a sudden explosion rocked the night. The shockwave from the nearby blast rocked her, and she stumbled to a halt, breathing hard. She concentrated on finding her friends in the chaos, but there were so many people, so many vibrations. She couldn't pinpoint anyone but Aang, and a cold stab of fear shot through her.

"No…." she whispered into the night. "NO!"

-

As Sokka trudged back toward camp his mind churned with thoughts of a kind he'd never had. Thoughts about Toph and what her life must be like. And what it would be like to be in her life.

He touched the cheek she'd kissed in wonder. In all his time traveling with the deceptively diminutive Earthbender, that had to be last thing he'd ever expected her to do. Punch him, yes. Hug him, maybe. Kiss him, never. He'd begun to think the only way she showed affection was through a little friendly violence, never a kiss.

He had never given the prospect much thought before. Of their little family of traveling friends Aang was like a little brother to him, and Katara, well, she was his sister, of course. But he'd never had sisterly thoughts toward Toph before. She'd always been more like his partner in crime and mayhem. He grinned in spite of himself. Yep, she was a good partner for mayhem.

He'd taken a chance tonight in trying describe the night scene to her. As tough as she tried to be, he knew deep down she was actually extremely touchy about her blindness. He'd learned early on that you did not try to coddle Toph in any way. Not without getting a rock to the back of the head, anyway (or any other sensitive bit of anatomy). Her reaction tonight had surprised and stunned him, as well as his own promise to be her eyes whenever she needed him. To him, that was a commitment he'd never take lightly.

The dizzy swirl of thoughts drained him and he stumbled into his sleeping bag, throwing off his tunic and laying it haphazardly across his pack. Much as Sokka tried to calm himself enough for sleep, every time he closed his eyes he saw the petite Earthbender there with her cocky grin and hair like black silk. He wondered whether it felt as soft as it looked.

Of everyone he knew, he was the only one she'd opened up for and shown that vulnerable side that she kept tucked away under lock and key. He knew, that even under pain of death, she would never have admitted to Katara or even Aang what she'd shared with him tonight. (In his opinion, he thought she overplayed the tough act mostly just to annoy Katara. His sister, bless her, just had to fix everyone's problems, and it drove her crazy that Toph repeatedly shot down her attempts and girly bonding.) To them, she'd be as strong and unmovable as her native element. Only to him had she shown she wasn't made entirely of stone.

Tonight, things had changed. Some small deviation from their normal path had Sokka thinking that perhaps Toph wasn't just a younger friend and traveling companion, good for collaborative mischief. She'd grown into a strong young woman, strength and beauty and passion all rolled into a deceptively delicate frame. He'd always seen her for who she really was, even when the world saw her as fragile and faulty because of her lack of sight. What she was to him, though, was taking on an entirely new form.

Maybe, just maybe, their futures were intertwined a little more closely than either of them had ever imagined.

The longer he lay there, staring at the stars, the more he thought about the future and what it might hold. He imagined a cozy igloo at the South Pole with little Water Tribe warriors and Earthbenders playing in the snow and listening to the stories their parents would regale them with around the fire at night. But then again, Toph wouldn't like the ice. So the scene morphed into a modest Earth Kingdom house with sprawling acres of land and hills. They'd have ostrich-horses and goat-pigs, and plenty of space for Toph to practice her bending and-

"Oh Sokka, what have you gotten yourself into?" he sighed to himself.

He huffed and flipped over in his sleeping bag. If sleep doesn't come soon, he thought, with just a hint of a smile gracing his lips, this is going to be a long night.

Sleep came quickly for him, though, only to be shattered by heat, pain, and panic as the night was set aflame around him. 


	2. Ambushed

**This is a contest fic for *daughterofthestars on deviantArt and her pic titled "Ambushed". It's a sad, sad picture, and she did so well conveying the emotion and pain. :O Anyway, she got many offers from writers to expand on her short descriptive story and thus, the contest was born. Honestly, I don't care about being the best. I just wanna see the other entries! :D**

**UPDATE: I won da contest! :D This is officially the contest version, edited with the help if my amazing beta reader, Capt-BA from dA. She's the shiz, and I am so grateful for her wisdom and patience! There will be an Author's Cut, a full multi-chaptered fic to continue and further explore the characters! Yay Tokka!  
**

**[h e a r t],**

**Nyx**

* * *

**2. Ambushed**

The night started clear and cloudless, but by the dawn everything around them would be drenched in shades of crimson and smoke.

The acrid stench of smoldering earth and terror permeated the night and clawed at Toph's lungs until she was coughing violently. There were almost two dozen Firebenders and numerous tanks surrounding their camp from what she could tell. The rush of her own adrenaline made her nearly deaf as well as blind, making everything hazy and fragmented. She'd never choked in battle, but this was different tonight. Something was very, very wrong this time.

She raced down the twisting narrow path, barely avoiding trees and other obstacles in her way. She finally gave up the thought of surprising her enemies and she began to use the earth to rocket herself forward, great pillars pistoning from the ground like stony extensions of her own legs. She pushed on, heedless of the tree limbs slapping at her arms and face, until she stumbled onto the horrific battlefield that was once their peaceful campsite.

This was a nightmare.

It had to be a nightmare.

Firebenders were everywhere. They circled Appa, who bellowed in pain and rage as a blast of fire caught him along his flank. The great bison hooked one soldier with a horn and tossed him into the trees and slammed a group of three hard to the earth with his mighty tail. She could feel Katara and Aang nearby. They were back to back, simultaneously guarding one another and striking out at their opponents with well aimed strikes of bending. Her heart stopped when she failed to find Sokka through the agitated and enraged energy of the earth.

The Firebenders were focused mostly on Aang and Katara, so Toph threw multiple boulders crashing into the Firebenders' ranks. She launched a barrage of rocky missiles at their attackers as Katara flung a stinging whip of lethal ice and water across their bodies. She whirled and lunged at her enemies, a graceful and deadly dance in the midst of a fiery battle.

Tonight, as she got her adrenaline under control, Toph held the advantage. She could see he enemies clearly while they were blinding themselves with their own billowing clouds of smoke. She used this advantage to slam a Firebender on her right against a tree and hold him there. She launched the man in front of her into the air, taking grim satisfaction in his terrified screams as he careened away from the burning camp. To her left, she suddenly sensed Sokka as he dropped another Firebender with a vicious swing of his club. Relief crashed through her and she grinned in spite of their circumstances.

"You hurt, Boomerang Boy?" she called out. She commanded a jagged earthen wall to burst from the ground in her attacker's face, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Minor scratches. You?" Sokka grunted as he swung his club at another enemy's stomach, making him collapse in a heap.

She didn't have time to respond. Aang had been separated from Katara and was now surrounded by heat and flames. Come on, Aang, go all Avatar on their butts, she thought desperately as she watched the exchange. He held off blazing wall of fire with well placed gusts of air, the element he always reverted to in a crisis, but he was quickly being overwhelmed. A blast caught him on his left side and he cried out in agony. Panicked, Toph rent the earth beneath him even as he fell to his knees and dropped him out of harm's way.

A primeval scream ripped from Katara's throat as she sent icy daggers stabbing toward the men who had injured Aang. Three of them dropped without another sound, but the others turned to meet their assailant head on. Steam joined smoke as fire and water hissed and clashed angrily against each other, twisting and lunging like enraged serpents. She was holding her own despite being outnumbered, but fatigue and fear was causing her to slip. One of them men got past her defense and slashed at her arm with a dagger and Katara screamed again, this time in pain, and she fell to her knees clutching her now useless right arm. Toph started to run for her injured friend, desperate to help her.

"TOPH! BEHIND YOU!" It was Sokka's scream that alerted her to the fire pulsing towards her. The fire she couldn't see. The heat of it she could feel, but heat was everywhere, and it was impossible to tell where the dangerous element was. She stood frozen, eyes wide with fear, unable to sense a safe escape.

She was slammed to the ground just as the night exploded around her. Unbearable heat engulfed her and the last thing she remembered before she passed out was the feel of Sokka's still body covering hers and the feeling of the Avatar bursting up from beneath the earth.

And then there was darkness.

-

His first thought upon waking was that he'd been on the wrong side of an arctic hippo stampede. Surely, he'd been trampled into the ice and left for the buzzard-fox's to pick apart. He shivered violently, and that sudden involuntary movement left him in breathless agony. He was so cold, and in so much pain.

What happened to me? he thought. He was having a hard time focusing.

"SOKKA! Oh, Spirits, you're alive!"

"Toph... wha?"

He sat up blearily, limbs numb and ears still ringing from the explosions. He felt a pressure on his chest, and drowsily realized that Toph was squeezing him tightly. He took a breath to try to put words to his scrambled thoughts.

"Shh," she cut him off. "You're hurt."

"Mmn." He tried to figure out where, but the numb stinging seemed to be everywhere. He lifted a hand, focusing on Toph's form. "Joo?"

She forced a choked laugh. "I'm fine. Stay still, stay quiet." Her voice had a waver in it that he'd never heard before. "Aang went to get Katara. You're going to be okay."

"What happened?"

"It was an ambush..." She said slowly. "They attacked while we were asleep..."

The ringing in his ears had dimmed and the overall ache had begun to draw back to individual wounds. His head was still a little fuzzy, but he started to take mental stock of his parts and pieces. Various scrapes and bruises, a bump on the head, pain in his wrist... probably sprained. He wiggled his fingers and blinked his eyes, all the while Toph kept drawing him closer and tighter.

He tried to wiggle his toes, but his feet were still numb. He couldn't feel anything. His heartbeat sped up, and Toph tried to sooth him. "Shh, Sokka. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay..." Was she trying to convince him or herself?

"Toph... I can't feel my feet."

Her hands clenched and she closed her eyes tightly, silent sobs contracting her chest and closing up her throat.

"Toph? ... " His throat closed up, but his muddled brain couldn't figure out why. Dull pain throbbed in waves up his legs and left him breathless. All at once realization came crashing into his mind. With a valiant fight against unconsciousness, everything went dark again.

-

The sound of rain beating a staccato rhythm against the roof is what woke Sokka from his fevered nightmare. He bolted upright gasping for air and clutched wildly around the bed for his boomerang. The dream had been so vivid. Firebenders everywhere, attacking his friends, his sister. He woke when the explosion in his nightmare erupted above him and Toph, blinding and deafening him. So much heat and pain, the feel of her tiny body huddled beneath him, and oh, spirits, the pain….

He ran through the same mental checklist as in that horrific nightmare. Head, fingers, wrists, eyes, no bruises, no scrapes. He sighed in relief and chuckled to himself. He was being ridiculous. It had been nothing more than a nightmare. He was safe and whole, still tucked away in the lavish bedroom at the Fire Nation Royal Palace.

Unease crept through his body, wrenching his gut with growing terror. When had they arrived at the palace? He couldn't remember arriving. Actually, the last thing he remembered was Toph kissing him on the cheek and then laying in his sleeping bag as giddy thoughts swirled through his mind.

"Oh spirits, no… please, please, please let that just have been a bad dream," he whispered to the silence.

He took a deep breath and prepared for the most difficult moment in his life. He tried to wriggle his toes and….

…nothing. Nothing happened. 


	3. A Promise to Keep

**This is a contest fic for *daughterofthestars on deviantArt and her pic titled "Ambushed". It's a sad, sad picture, and she did so well conveying the emotion and pain. :O Anyway, she got many offers from writers to expand on her short descriptive story and thus, the contest was born. Honestly, I don't care about being the best. I just wanna see the other entries! :D**

**UPDATE: I won da contest! :D This is officially the contest version, edited with the help if my amazing beta reader, Capt-BA from dA. She's the shiz, and I am so grateful for her wisdom and patience! There will be an Author's Cut, a full multi-chaptered fic to continue and further explore the characters! Yay Tokka!  
**

**[h e a r t],**

**Nyx**

**

* * *

**

**_3. A Promise to Keep_**

Sokka stared at the useless lumps under the cover for what seemed like an eternity. A frigid blankness filled him, clutching at his insides like the talons of an icy monster ripping him apart from within. This couldn't be happening. This was still part of the nightmare! It HAD to be!

Silent tears poured down his face. How could life go on after this? How could he possibly be a warrior if he was bedridden for the rest of his life? Anguish broke over him like a tsunami, battering his heart and his psyche until they were all but shattered like the hull of a ship tossed against a cliff. Why? Why had this happened to him?

A wordless scream ripped itself from his throat. He screamed his grief into the night. It was the sound of a lonely wolf torn from everything he knew and loved.

Frantic scuffling came from outside his door, but he was too far gone to care. The door burst open and Aang, Katara, and Toph poured into the room. They stopped and stood motionless, staring wide-eyed. His scream died away with a chocked sob and he sat on the bed with his head in his hands, chest heaving, with tears pouring unabashedly down his face.

"Sokka…" Katara said tentatively, and she started towards her brother, tears stinging her eyes and throat. In all their years, he'd always protected her, been there for her when she needed him. The one time he needed her most, and she felt like she'd failed him.

"Katara, why? Why couldn't you heal me," he accused, a maniacal edge to his rasping voice. His head snapped up and he fixed an angry glare at his sister. "WHY, KATARA?"

She stopped a few feet from him, taken aback at the anger in his words. "I-I tried, Sokka. I swear I tried…" She looked down at the floor, unable to meet his accusing glare. Her own bitter tears of sorrow and shame flowing freely down her cheeks. "There wasn't enough left to heal," she finished quietly.

He shook his head in denial. "No, no, this is still a dream. I'm still dreaming, aren't I? As soon as I wake up, this will all be behind me. I'll be whole again." Before they could stop him, Sokka heaved himself up on his arms and swung the bandaged stumps of his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Sokka, no!" Toph cried, her own voice thick with unshed tears. She felt her heart breaking for him, and she wished she could take away his pain and rage.

He ignored her, fixing them all with a steely glare, and pushed himself off the bed. Together, Aang and Toph rushed to the bedside and caught him before he hit the ground. He thrashed and fought them, screaming and swinging on them the best he could, but he was still so weak that he did little harm and gave up. The gently laid him back in the bed and covered his now limp form with the light linen sheet as his silent tears began again.

"Sokka," Aang began. The compassion and pity in his eyes made Sokka look away, ashamed. "This is no dream, buddy. We're here for you, whatever you need, we're here. Just call." Aang put an arm around Katara, who remained motionless, weeping inconsolably for her brother's pain, and led her quietly out of the room.

Toph remained with Sokka and sat with him, silent well into the moonless night. He was nearly catatonic, and she almost wished he'd start lashing out again, just to know that he was feeling something, that he wasn't shutting himself away. He did nothing but stare out the window and breathe slowly, his heart beating the rhythm of a mournful dirge. He didn't so much as twitch a muscle.

She decided to take a chance. "Tell me what it looks like."

He slowly turned his head toward her. "Tell you how what looks like?"

"The Moon." She tentatively reached for his hand, but he snatched it away. Disappointed, she turned away from him.

He turned back to the window, "It's not out tonight, Toph." Bitterness and resentment colored his tone.

"Oh," she replied, momentarily defeated. "Well, tell me what the sky looks like, then."

"Why do you care? You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

That hurt her, and she very nearly went off on him, but she maintained her calm. She'd been blind her whole life, so she didn't really, truly know what she was missing. Sokka, though, knew full well what the consequences of his injuries were. It killed her to try to imagine how it must feel to have something so vital, something you depended on so heavily ripped away and be left trying to cope.

"You said you'd be my eyes whenever I needed you," she whispered.

He didn't respond.

She cleared her throat. "I made you something while you were passed out." She bent over and pulled a box out from underneath the bed. She placed the heavy box on top of the sheets beside him.

"They'll probably need some tweaking, but it's a start." She pulled out the first of two knee-length metal boots.

He huffed angrily. "Just what do you expect me to do with boots, Toph? In case you haven't noticed, I have no legs to -"

"If you'd shut up for just a second and let me finish, then you'd know how they work!" she snapped at him. "They're prosthetics, Sokka. They strap on to your legs and should allow you to walk again. That is what you want, isn't it? Or do you want to lay in bed for the rest of your life and feel sorry for yourself?"

She threw the blankets back and roughly grabbed his right leg. None to gently, she shoved the bandaged stump into one of the prosthetics and began strapping it on, heedless of his howl of pain. Her chest was heaving with anger and frustration, and tears threatened to spill over again.

He grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her down onto the bed, holding her close to restrain her flailing limbs.

"Let me GO, Sokka!" She struggled against him with all her strength, but he held her tight and buried his face in her hair.

"What if it doesn't work, Toph," he whispered into her hair, sounding so much like a frightened little boy that she stopped struggling.

"Then we try again. We keep trying until we find something that works." She leaned against him, taking and giving comfort at the same time. His arms were warm and gentle around her in a hug and a pleasant shiver took her when he pressed his lips to her hair.

She turned around in his arms to face him and with one hand, she reached up to lay a tiny palm against his cheek. "You promised to be my eyes," she whispered again, her hand tenderly roving over his face, exploring his features, memorizing every nuance and curve. She traced the scar above his left eye from a sledding accident when he was eight, and the fine stubble of the beard that had grown in the past week. With gentle fingers, she trailed soft lines over his eyebrows, spending time on the smoothness of his eyelids and tickling his lashes, over the bridge of his nose, softly across his lips and slowly down his throat where they stopped, curled against his chest.

"If you'll be my eyes, Sokka, then I'll be your legs, one way or another. We'll figure it out together, ok? I'll be there for you."

He nodded silently, the appropriate words escaping him, and he hugged her tightly against his chest. She laid her head on his shoulder and he could feel her soft lips curving into a smile against his neck.

The rain on the roof was the only sound that surrounded them the rest of the night, soothing and washing away their pain and heartaches. None of this would be easy, they both knew, but neither of them would go it alone.

* * *

**A/N - When the full version comes out, the ending of this chapter will be drastically changed!**


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